


About Time

by heartablaze



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: AU, Blimey - can you just talk already, Drinking/Drugs CW, F/M, Muggle AU, modern uni AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-04
Updated: 2020-04-04
Packaged: 2021-02-23 11:49:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,147
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23477776
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/heartablaze/pseuds/heartablaze
Summary: Before his final year started, James Potter offered to be a resident advisor for a first-year dorm. What he didn’t count on was dealing with a confusing redhead across the hall, hospital visits, hallway parties and writing his thesis the night before it was due. Blimey. (Muggle Uni AU)
Relationships: James Potter/Lily Evans Potter
Comments: 1
Kudos: 54





	About Time

I

James started the semester laid sprawled on his back on his dorm room floor, the edge of his duvet covering his face. Not bothering to knock, Lily had wrenched the blinds open in a savage attempt to get him out of bed. It had worked, technically. James had rolled off of the bed and onto the floor in a blind state of panic, his eyes searing from the light pouring through his blinds.

“Get up, you dribbling mess.”

His grumble came from beneath the duvet. “I have a busy schedule today, I’ve no time for your insults.”

“Pray tell. What does this busy schedule entail, Potter?” she asked. Lily looked around his room, taking advantage of the rare opportunity of James being otherwise occupied. His desk is tidy, with just his laptop and a stack of notebooks pushed to the edge. The pin board behind was already covered in photos of his friends and his family, and there was a scarlet coloured pennant with ‘Gryffindor’ printed in gold letters pinned to the top corner of the board. On the wall behind his bed was a large Manchester City poster.

“Sleeping and eating my weight in brekkie muffins. I might get to starting my thesis later if I get the chance.”

“You know I hate to burst your bubble, but you can’t do any of that today.”

He lifts the corner of the duvet, one eye shut as he squints out of the other, “Why the fuck not?”

“It’s O-Day.”

He let the duvet drop back to cover his head with a short laugh. “That’s sweet of you to think of me, Evans, but I already know which archways to avoid a-cappella groups in. Also, I stole enough pens to last me through the semester at our briefing last week. I’m all set.”

“You know it’s not for you, you pest.”

“Can’t you just do it alone?”

“Absolutely not. You signed up for this just as much as I did.” she beams as she leaves his room, his protests following her. “Downstairs, five minutes!”

James took a deep breath and counted to ten before throwing the cover off of his face. He swore under his breath as he pushed himself off the ground, and made a mental note to start locking his door if Evans was going to make a habit of barging in. He also made another mental note to always wear pants to bed. Within ten minutes he was dressed and downstairs, yawning loudly as he found his place next to Lily in the common room.

“I said five minutes, not whenever you felt like it.“

“Settle down, no one is even here yet.“ he said with another yawn. James almost whimpered with relief as she passed him a coffee cup with ‘Potter’ scrawled across the lid in black pen.

“From the dining hall?”

She shook her head. “The cart near astronomy. It’s a double shot.”

“Oh my god,” he said with both hands on the cup. “I might be in love with you.”

James knew that Evans had been shocked as any to learn that he’d put his hand up to be a resident advisor at the end of last semester. The job itself required a fair bit of work, and a fair bit of giving-a-shit; she had forcefully told him last semester. Lily Evans was in her final year of Economics and International Relations, and she had a way with people. As long as those people weren’t messy haired, bespectacled Physics masters students who once accidentally stole her study carrel in her first year. They got along better these days than they had at first. They hardly ever rowed anymore; James even caught her smiling at him sometimes, occasionally laughing at his jokes.

“You wouldn’t be the first.“

James believed that.

Evans was fierce. Not in an intimidating way, but in a rousing way. She fought for what she believed in, made others want to do the same. It’s what made her a great RA. The first years started to file into the common room, clearly as their campus tour came to a close. Lily stepped forward first, introducing herself to the group and explaining the way the dorm system worked. James took the opportunity she offered him to introduce himself, trying his best to come across as approachable. Evans had done it so easily that James wondered if she’d had her speech prepared or if she just winged it. They got on with the tour, helped each of them to find their dorm rooms, and familiarised them with the emergency exits, bathrooms and first aid procedures. James was responsible for the boys, and Lily for the girls. It was a simple division, but James started to wonder if he was really cut out for the job when fifteen blokes looked at him expectantly when he gets to the end of the rooms tour. He tried to remember what they had told them at the advisors briefing last week.

“My dorm is down the hall if you ever need anything,” he said, running a hand through his hair. Available and approachable, he reminded himself. “Doors always unlocked, just make sure you knock first.”

“In case you’ve got some fit little bird in there, hey lad?” the tallest of the lot asks with a smirk. The rest of the group laugh, looking up at him hopefully. ‘Yes’ is clearly the answer they want. The tall one looks no older than eighteen, and James wondered how many girls he’d ever actually seen. The ‘Hello my name is’ tag on his chest says ‘Kendrick’. James couldn’t help but wonder why he disliked the bloke already.

“Yeah, Kendrick. Something like that.”

II

Weeks passed and while Lily dealt with a few cases of homesickness and fights between friends, James dealt with a few cases of I-knew-that-last-tequila-shot-was-a-bad-idea. There were a few incidences of students missing at lock out, and they have to drive James’ car to the pubs around town to find them. Lily had to drive back because James was too angry when they found Kendrick and two of his mates throwing empty beer bottles at a tower block ten minutes from campus. It wasn’t all vomit and petty crime. The two of them had to work with the dorm building coordinators to sort out repairs when someone left a tap on, flooding the top two floors, which included both of their rooms. Precedence developed in the first few weeks of term; the boys caused the trouble, and the girls suffered for it.

It’s when James spends all night in the emergency room that he almost lost it. He passed all of the students in the common room when they got back to campus, waiting up to hear the news. James leaves Kendrick downstairs to answer his peers’ questions, silently making his way up to his room. It wasn’t long before Lily turned up. She didn’t bother to knock, pushing his door open and placing a large stack of pancakes down on his desk next to him. James had his head leaning against the keyboard of his laptop as she knelt down beside him, her hand on his forearm.

“You okay?”

“No.”

She leaned her forehead head against his arm, and his shoulders relaxed on their own accord. He wasn’t sure how exactly she did that, but it worked every time.

“You okay?” she asked again.

“Yeah.”

“Wanna talk about it?”

“Not right now.”

James didn’t expect her to, but she waited. He reached for a pancake off the top of the stack, tearing it in half and giving her one side. Lily took it, chewing a small bite as she looked up at him. He ate the half and took a deep breath.

“Those idiots spent two hours watching Kendrick throw up before they even bothered coming to get me. I had to wrangle him into my car. He was awful, Lily. Punched me in the head while I was driving. I spent six hours at the hospital with him while they pumped his stomach, then the prick just ignored me all the way back to campus, like I’d ruined his night. I asked him what he took and he gave me a filthy look like I was too old to even understand. He lied right to my face and told me he didn’t know what I was talking about.”

“You’re twenty-three. To an eighteen year old you’re practically ancient.” she teased in a kind voice.

“I’ve got my thesis draft due Monday and I wasted a whole night looking after his ungrateful arse. I should have just left him upstairs where I found him.”

“James, you don’t mean that.”

“When I said I wanted to RA, I never said I wanted to clean vomit out of my car, be punched in the head, and listen to that little prick brag about shagging a girl I know for a fact he’s never even spoken to.”

“Which one of them was he bragging about?” Lily asked suddenly, the concern for her girls dripping from her voice. “Holly? Please tell me it’s not Holly. She’s got enough on her plate as it is.”

“It’s not Holly,” James said quietly, reaching for another pancake. “Look, just don’t worry about it, okay? I put a stop to it.” James thought about how he pulled the car over and threatened to have Kendrick expelled for possession and distribution of illicit substances on campus if he kept spreading the slander. It was wrong to threaten one of the students, he knew, but he couldn’t stand it.

“I want to know.” she told him.

James couldn’t help but replay Kendrick’s vivid lies in his head. He forced himself not to shudder. “You really don’t.”

He picked up another pancake. He wasn’t hungry; he just needed to do something with his hands. Lily stood up and took it from his hand, placing it back on the plate. “James.” She said in a small voice, putting her finger under his chin to lift his gaze to meet hers, “If there’s going to be rumours about them, I want to warn her.”

“It wasn’t about any of your girls, Lily.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah.”

The look on his face told her everything she needed to know. “Kendrick was telling people he shagged me?”

“Yeah.”

“Oh.”

He turned in his chair to face her, his knees brushing hers. “I mean, obviously I didn’t know for certain that it wasn’t true. I just figured shagging eighteen year olds with patchy beards and no moral compass probably wasn’t your thing.”

“You’re not wrong,” she said softly, as she straightened her back. “I tend to go for twenty-three year olds with messy hair and an unfinished thesis drafts.”

“What-?”

She gently brushed his hair back off his forehead. Her fingers sent little electric pulses over his skin. She turned her back with a small smile, and walked through the open doorway. “Eat your pancakes, Potter. I’ll see you later.”

III

James generally sat with his mates for meals in the dining hall. A few brief minutes of respite where he didn’t have to be thinking about the broken window on the second floor or about Lily Evans’ fingers through his hair. He couldn’t admit to Sirius or Remus or Pete that he’s still thinking about that last one, but he is. It’s been weeks, but every time he see’s her, he wants her to do it again. She sits on the same side of the table as he does, and he finds it infuriating because he can’t sneak glances at her when she’s on the same bloody side of the bloody table.

He was late for dinner one night because of a meeting with the admissions committee. Like a whirlwind, he rushed in, grabbed a bread roll from the table and rushed out again. On his way out, he let his fingers brush over Lily’s back. An easy mistake, anyone could assume. Only it wasn’t. He needed to talk to her. James reached the door and glanced over his shoulder at her. She was looking right at him, her cheeks flushed as she nodded once. He kept moving. James wondered if he was only running on nervous energy now. Maybe if he stopped, he’d die. Not wanting to find out, he all but ran back to his dorm.

Lily pushed his door open a few minutes after he got there, closing it behind her. “What’s the matter?”

“Kendrick. He’s gone.”

He watched the panic rise in her face, and wanted to do anything to make it go away. “Gone as in missing?”

“No,” he said quickly, placing both hands on her shoulders to steady himself more than to comfort her, “gone as in expelled.”

“Is that why you were late to dinner?” James tried to ignore how that one question made him feel. There was nothing abnormal about her noticing his absence. He noticed hers all the time. Yet again, he noticed a lot of things about Lily Evans these days.

He nodded. “I was with admissions, giving a statement about what happened last month with him and the hospital. Apparently one of the RAs in the Hamersley building caught a student with a bag of the shit, and they said he got it from Kendrick. Admissions got a warrant to tear his room apart, found a stash of it under his mattress. The police checked with the hospital and toxicology report came back confirming it was the same shit that put him in there. He was selling it when he knew it was going to fuck them up. The boy’s in some serious trouble, Evans.” James’ hands were shaking. He had to take them off her shoulders so that he could shove them into the pockets of his jeans. James wished he could blame it on the cold, but it was more than that. He’d failed Kendrick. He knew it, admissions knew it, and he wouldn’t be surprised if Lily knew it.

Over the past few months, James had begun to think Evans could read his mind. He hoped she couldn’t but every so often, she would answer his thoughts, rather than his words. “This isn’t your fault.” Lily told him softly, the voice that slowed his heart rate and melted his insides all at once, “Tell me you know that?”

James closed his eyes and took a shaky breath in. He didn’t answer her. He couldn’t without lying. He’d threatened to get Kendrick expelled. And it happened. Whatever came next was on him.

IV

Months passed after the expulsion, and while the rumours went around that James had called the police on Kendrick after the hospital incident, they eventually died down. James’ relief wasn’t due to the rumours about him settling, but instead that none appeared to surface about Lily. By mid-January, James was just about finished writing his thesis introduction when she burst into his room. He didn’t look up when the door slammed open against the wall, he had grown accustom to it.

“I need a favour.”

“Name it.”

He looked up from his notebook to the doorway. His mouth went dry at the sight. Lily was wearing a deep blue dress that was tight around her waist but flowed down to her feet like a waterfall. Her hair was braided loosely and she wore it over one shoulder, strands falling delicately into her face. Her cheeks grew pink as he stumbled over his words, but she didn’t acknowledge his fish-out-of-water behaviour. “Could you drop me at the station? I’m running late.”

“Where are you-?” he asked, still unable to form full sentence.

“My sisters wedding.”

He pulled open the top drawer of his desk, fumbling around until he found his car keys, “Just take my car.”

“I might stay at my parents place, I wouldn’t be able to get it back to you tonight.”

“I don’t need it tonight, or even tomorrow,” he said, pulling the keys out of the drawer and tossing them to her, “honestly, please take it. I’d be less worried about you driving than you getting the train looking that-”

“That…?”

James’ chest constricted and he cleared his throat. “Shouldn’t you get going?”

She sighed, smoothing down the front of her dress before holding up the keys between delicate fingers. “Thank you for this, I owe you. Really.”

“Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do!” James called out as she disappeared. After she was gone, he felt a familiar sense of longing settle in his chest. He looked back at his notebook, and decided that he wouldn’t be able to concentrate with the thought of her in that dress rattling around in his head. He decided to go see Sirius in Hamersley. If she could go out, then so could he. It was close to one AM by the time Lily got back. James had his laptop on his legs as he sat on his bed. Lily was still in her blue dress, but her eye makeup had run and her hair was out of place when she pushed his door open.

“Jesus,” he said, startled as he yanked his headphones out of his ears. He didn’t hear the door; only saw her standing there where she hadn’t been before. Lily’s face flushed as she looks from the laptop to him, spotting the headphones and assuming the worst.

“I’m so sorry, I should have knocked – I – I didn’t mean to interrupt.”

And then James realised what she thought he’s doing. He quickly turned the laptop to show her the screen with a paused still of a cartoon. His trousers were buttoned and both his hands in the air.

“I’m not doing what you think I’m doing!”

“I saw the headphones, I presumed-” Lily covered her face with her hand with an embarrassed groan. He moved aside on his bed, patting the spot next to him. Closing his laptop, he pushed it away from them. “I’m so sorry.” she said as she sat down, her dress flowing over his bed. He chuckled at the confusion, brushing her hair back from her face as he shook his head.

“You okay?” 

“No.”

Her eyes were red and her cheeks glistened slightly, as though the tears had dried down the front. James didn’t ask any more questions, only wrapped his arms around her. He held her until she stopped shaking. James would never admit to how much it pained him to see her cry. How each sob felt like his ribs were cracking individually, how she clutched his shirt made his stomach churn, how her shaky breaths made him want to find who broke her and make them pay.

“You okay?” 

“Yeah.”

“Wanna talk about it?”

Lily told him in detail about the wedding, about the row she and her sister had before the ceremony started. She told him about her sister kicking her out of the bridal party at the last minute. She told him about the horrible words her new Brother-In-Law had spoken to her, and how her sister did nothing to stop him.

“Some family, huh.” she sniffed, her face buried in his chest as he rubbed her back.

“There’s the families we’re given, then there’s the families we choose, Evans. Just, choose wisely.”

“I have.”

V

Doherty hall had its fair share of dorm parties throughout the semester, usually being confined to one room or even the common room most were relatively easy to control, and were easily shut down in an emergency. What the two resident advisors hadn’t been prepared for was returning to the building after class on a Tuesday afternoon to find it teeming with first and second years. The halls were practically bursting with people, and James managed to lose Lily in amongst them once they reached the first floor.

He called the other RAs certain that if this many students were at Doherty, then there would be almost no one left in the other residency halls. He had to yell into his phone over the music. Lily still hadn’t shown up, so James decided to go to his room to figure out what he should do. He could hardly move through the hall, let alone yell to get any of them to hear him. He wasn’t surprised when she was sitting on his bed, her legs crossed as she spoke quickly to someone on the phone. He shut the door behind him and sagged down to the floor, his head in his hands.

“Alright,” she said calmly, even though her fingers tapped quickly against her thigh. “I’ve spoke to the building coordinator-“

James pointed back out to the hallway. “I saw like, fifteen building code violations on my way from the front door to here.”

“I did a rough head count on my way up. We’re at almost triple the capacity this building is designed for. We have to get them all out of here. If there’s a fire or an emergency-”

James’ eyes widened as he had an idea, leaning down he kissed her forehead. “Evans, you’re a genius.” He turned to look at the building plan attached to the wall beside his door, before tearing the door open

“What did I say?” Lily asked frantically, scrambling to her feet as he left the room. “James, what did I say?”

James pushed his way through the throngs of people, and punched the glass case containing the fire alarm. Without hesitating he yanked the lever down. A screeching siren sounded, signalling the occupants to evacuate. A moment later jets of water were released from the ceiling. The music downstairs stopped, and a chorus of groans and squeals came from the hallways.

“Everyone out!”

It wasn’t until he was sitting on the back step of the ambulance, the paramedic pulling the glass from his hand and applying bandages, that she came over and spoke to him.

“I think Doherty is could go for a Guinness World Record, or a Campus Record at least.”

“Yeah?”

“Most number of times a residence hall has been flooded in a single school year.”

“I dunno, Sirius and I flooded Hamersley a few times in our day. I think our record might still hold.”

“‘In our day’. Come on Grandad,” she scoffed, “how did you manage that?”

“We set up a water slide in the hall. Rubbish bags lining the ground and walls to stop the water going into people rooms, but we didn’t really account for the stairs. Just ran right down and into the commons.”

“Did you have to walk fifteen miles in the snow to get to school, too?” she teased, sitting down beside him and taking the hand that wasn’t wrapped in gauze in her own.

“You are only two years younger than me, Evans. Soon you will know the soft sting of senility.”

VI

After the incident at Doherty, all of the resident advisors were called for a briefing to discuss alternative methods of handling the situation than flooding the building. James arrived a little late, taking his seat next to Lily with an apologetic smile to the Dean of Students. He isn’t sure if it’s his clothes that smell of rum, or his skin. The half a tube of toothpaste he used at least sorted his breath.  
“You couldn’t have showered?” Lily asked out the corner of her mouth. He waved a hand, as though she were a bothersome fly buzzing about his head.  
“I tried.”  
“You ‘tried’. What does that mean?”  
He waited until the Dean turned around to write something on the whiteboard about correct use of fire alarms, turning to her to explain, “I threw up twice trying to turn the taps on.”  
“Good God, James.”

“Were hangovers always this bad?” James slumped into his chair as the vein in his temple pulsed.

“You’re twenty-three not fifty, James.”

“Twenty-four.” he corrected.

“Excuse me?”

“Yesterday was my birthday. I’m twenty-four. Probably says more about the hangover than I’m proud of.”

“Yesterday was your birthday?”

“I know you said you had a thing for twenty-three year olds with messy hair, but how do you feel about twenty-four year olds with disgusting hangovers?”

“I’m Switzerland.”

“Can’t wait to write home to mum.”

The briefing ends and they’re dismissed. Lily doesn’t say anything all the way back to Doherty and James started to wonder if she thought he was serious about writing home to his mum about her. Not that he wouldn’t, but he wondered if she read too much into the joke. He had started to panic, until she followed him into his dorm. Lily closed the door behind them.

“Why didn’t you tell me it was your birthday?”

He leant back onto the edge of his desk, his arms folding across his chest, “It’s just a day. Besides, you had a test yesterday.”

“I didn’t get you a present.”

“I didn’t expect you to.”

It happened before he knew she was even moving. She pressed against him and her hands moved in his hair and he felt like he was on fire. Her lips moved on his but his brain was too slow and she was gone before he had time to react. Lily was back at the door like nothing happened, except her cheeks are red and she’s a little out of breath. “Guess I lied. I’m not Switzerland after all. Happy Birthday, Potter.”

After that she’s gone from his room, and James doesn’t see her for a week after that.

VII

It took him three all nighters and more Red Bull than any physician would ever recommend, but he finally finished his thesis. The boys suggested they celebrate, but James already had plans. He ordered a pizza and lay in bed watching Great British Bake Off on his laptop while he let his brain not think for the first time in a long time. She joined him some time after the first challenge, and he can’t remember what he’d even come in for in the first place, all he can think about is how right she fits in beside him. She watched Great British Bake Off, gasping as one of the cakes collapsed when it comes out of the oven. He watched as her hand closes around his blanket and relaxed with each exciting moment in the program. She was wearing a ring on her right hand, on her index finger. James swore that he’d never noticed it before, but he couldn’t be certain. Without thinking, James picked up her hand to look at the ring. He turned the ring carefully around her index finger, and she didn’t look away from the laptop screen. James didn’t notice how she held her breath as he touched her. Her hand was in front of his face, only centimetres away she could feel his warm breath on the back of her hand. It’s a small ring, he thought to himself, which isn’t surprising. She’s got small hands. Once he stopped fiddling with her hands, she placed one on his chest like it belonged there, and James’ breath hitched.

“I like your shirt.” She said, feeling the material slowly.

James swallowed hard, “I got it for my birthday.”

At the mention of his birthday, he had to force himself to swallow the bile that teased the back of his throat. “Actually, about my birthday,” he said, “we haven’t had the chance to talk about-”

She cut him off quickly, turning so she was lying on her side to face him. “I’m sorry.”

“What for?”

“For snogging you.” 

James cocked an eyebrow. “Are you?” 

She said nothing. 

“You said you lied about being Switzerland.”

“I did.” she said, her hand closing around his blanket again. “We’re not supposed to, y’know. They said before semester started that it’s frowned upon.”

James knew exactly what she was talking about. They’d made a big deal of it at the briefing meeting back in August about RAs not hooking up in the residency halls. He didn’t feel like talking about it, he wanted to know why she’d kissed him, not why she was sorry for doing it. “Not supposed to what? Watch Great British Bake Off?”

“Mary’s gone too far.” 

“I disagree.” 

“You would.” 

“What is that supposed to mean?” he asked, hand over his chest in mock offence. He was still holding her hand, his fingers lacing with hers as he looked back at the screen. James was about to make another joke about Mary Berry when he felt her lips against his neck.

VIII

The last of the students were packing up their dorms and bidding goodbye to their friends in the commons when Lily pushed his door open. His thesis was submitted and accepted the previous week, so he’d had time to pack most of his things away. His textbooks and notes are all in a crate in the corner, his clothes in boxes with only his sheets still on his bed. He didn’t need to look up when the door opened. He knew who would be standing there.

“Guess we’re no longer RAs.” he said with a small smile, looking down at his hands. “You won’t be across the hall any more. You can’t just go barging into blokes rooms in the real world, and I should tell you, it might land you in some hot water.” he looked up at her and gave her a lopsided grin. Even though his heart was screaming for him to stop messing about, telling him that this was his chance, his last and only, “Well, say something.”

“Go out with me.”

That hadn’t been what he was expecting. She took the words right out of his mouth.

“Don’t play with my feelings now, Evans. I’m not sure I can take it.”

“You don’t have to if you don’t want to. I just figured now that we’re not RAs, we could always just-”

James had taken two swift steps towards her, one hand finding her waist and the other cupping her face - kissing her so deeply that he felt his own damn knees buckle. He’d waited all year to have her. The room melted away, time passed quickly and slowly all at once, and the only thing that brought them back to earth was the sudden applause and cheering from behind them. James pulled back from the kiss, Lily’s eyes a little glazed, and the two of them looked towards the staircase where they saw a handful of their students, clapping and grinning.

“About time!” One of them called to them. Lily’s face went pink, and James grinned as he pulled Lily into the room and closed the door, muffling the sounds of the cheers, before leaning in to kiss her again.

“They’re right you know,” She murmured against his lips, her hands lacing into his hair to pull him closer, “it is about time.”


End file.
